Dear Friends,
In my view, recent years have been a low point for government accountability. Senior administration officials have been involved in scandal after scandal, and rarely do they do what is needed to clean up their own mess and discipline those at fault.
As someone who believes strongly in the need for a government that is held accountable for its mistakes, it has been frustrating to have to deal with an administration so dismissive of its own failures. The mark of good government isn't perfection; it's learning from mistakes and putting in place measures to avoid similar problems down the road.
I am proud of the work Congress has done through its oversight and legislative responsibilities to address the shortcomings of the Executive Branch. In the wake of one of the largest government healthcare scandals in American history, where veterans were languishing on patient waitlists and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees who manipulated those lists received promotions and bonuses, Congress worked in a bipartisan manner to aggressively attack the corruption and mismanagement at VA.
This year, we passed H.R. 5620, the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016. H.R. 5620 is a comprehensive accountability bill that would allow the VA Secretary to swiftly and fairly remove employees who are harming veterans and hurting the credibility of VA, recoup bonuses and relocation expenses from failing employees, and reduce pensions of senior executives convicted of felonies that influenced their job performance.
Through the Financial CHOICE Act, we are moving forward with a plan to rein in arguably the least accountable federal agency: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Under the CHOICE Act, the partisan director of CFPB will answer to bipartisan commissions and will become subject to congressional oversight through the appropriations process.
As the administration continued to propose rules that would have harmful impacts on the economy and that would not have required the consent of Congress, we passed H.R. 427, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2015 (REINS). The REINS Act would require Congress to approve any regulatory rule that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) deems would cost the U.S. economy $100 million or more.
And, when it was revealed that the Justice Department was requiring defendants to pay part of settlements with the federal government to third-party, non-victim, nongovernmental advocacy organizations, who in some cases had their funding cut by Congress, we passed the H.R. 5063, the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act.
Government accountability starts with a Congress that is willing to put aside partisan politics and attack inefficiencies and corruption in government. Regardless of the party affiliation of our president, I will always do my part to ensure Congress fulfills its primary responsibility of providing oversight to the Executive.
I invite you to visit my Facebook page to let me know what you think of Congress's efforts to increase accountability to the federal government.
Sincerely,
Representative French Hill |
Photos for the Week
Rep. Hill and District Director Jill Cox sit down to discuss the importance of early detection for breast cancer and how self-examinations can save lives. |
Rep. Hill and Senator John Boozman tour CoorsTek in Benton where they attended a community meeting to review the proposed Saline County Career and Technical Education Center. |
Rep. Hill visiting with Arkansas Cadets at West Point last week. |
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Golden Fleece
This week, Rep. Hill went on air with Bob Connell of KFFB in Fairfield Bay to announce the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as October's Golden Fleece Award recipient. Below is the text of the letter Rep. Hill wrote to HUD Secretary Julian Castro:
"I write today to inform you of my recent Golden Fleece Award to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the agency’s failure to address thousands of vital, cost-saving recommendations from the Inspector General (IG) since 2000.
"A report released by the Joint Majority Staff to Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in October of this year highlights some of the most egregious examples of unimplemented IG recommendations at our federal agencies. HUD stands out with an astounding 2,106 recommendations, identified in a letter from the HUD IG earlier this year, that continue to be ignored by agency officials. Stunningly, the earliest recommendation remaining uncorrected is from March of 2000, more than 16 years ago.
"From the payment of fictitious invoices to the agency’s inability to recapture excess expended funds, HUD’s IG has recommended numerous, cost-saving measures to correct these problems but continue to be ignored due to financial mismanagement at the agency. Our federal agencies must be good stewards of our federal tax dollars, and I am committed to ensuring effective practices at our Nation’s federal agencies.
"The fact that our federal officials refuse to implement recommended, cost-saving measures at our federal agencies is unacceptable, and today’s Golden Fleece highlights the need to address decades old problems to save valuable taxpayer dollars.
"I urge you to review this report and the IG’s letter and inform Congress of renewed efforts or needed assistance to implement these cost-saving measures at HUD. I thank you for your consideration and look forward to working with you to address this important issue."
About the Golden Fleece Award:
Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March of 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were “as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters.”
In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.
Click here to see all the Golden Fleece winners in the 114th Congress.
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FinTech: A Growing Industry
On Wednesday, Rep. Hill and fellow member of the House Committee on Financial Services, Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, participated in a
virtual roundtable hosted by The Venture Center's FinTech Accelerator, during which they discussed compliance and regulation in the financial technology and banking industries.
You can watch the virtual roundtable by clicking the image below.
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